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January, 1926 


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BOOKSHOP FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 


Women’s Educational and Industrial Union 
Boston, Massachusetts 


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Table of Contents 


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INTRODUCTION — The Bookshop and Its Relation 
to the Schools 


Experimental Schools in England with Exhibits 
from Six Schools 


The New Education, by Beatrice Ensor 
Exhibits and Descriptions of Schools . 


Patrick Geddes and His Influence on Education, 
by Mabel M. Barker 


Progressive Education in 1925, by Gertrude Hartman 
Some Outstanding Schools in England 
Some “ Progressive” Schools in the United States 


Books on Education . 


PAGE 


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Eileen Soper’s etching “In School”’ is reproduced on the cover through 


~ the courtesy of M. Knoedler & Co. 


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EXPERIMEN BAL. SGHOOLS 
IN ENGLAND 


Wohi BXEHIBITSS FROM Six SCHOOLS 


fm DOOK SHOP AND  fTS" RELATION 
LOS GHOOUS 


S a small contribution toward informing public 
4 opinion, The Bookshop for Boys and Girls held its 
first exhibit in 1922 of children’s own work from 
new schools—to say to the casual observer, “Look 
here and see what work in school is like for some children 
today.” 

In 1922, 1923, and 1924 the work came from private schools 
in Boston and New York, but last year’s exhibit (1925) came 
from Winnetka, Illinois, where the entire school system is 
conducted along new lines. Last summer, too, The Bookshop 
showed “free” drawings done by children in all parts of the 
country. 

In October, 1925, as the result of a steadily growing belief 
and absorption in the importance of new education, The Book- 
shop opened The New Room devoted primarily to books on 
the care of children and their education with other books which 
make for increased understanding of human behavior and the 
possibilities for growth. This room will be a constant publicity 
channel for new education. Books may be borrowed from it 
as well as purchased. Already parents, teachers, social-workers, 
ministers, and students are finding it useful. 

The Bookshop owes its existence to the interest in educa- 
tion which is inherent in the traditions of the Women’s Edu- 
cational and Industrial Union. In the past the Union has always 
been at work either upon research relating to education or upon 
definite experiment. It is probable that it will put more and 
more effort into the movement for improved schools. 

For its 1926 school exhibit The Bookshop is presenting 
interesting material from six experimental schools in England: 
3 


large exhibits from the Garden School.and King’s Langley 
Priory, with smaller exhibits from St. Christopher’s School, 
King Alfred School, the Hall School, and Caldecott Commu- 
nity. The schools and exhibits are described in later pages. 

It should be understood that many private schools in the 
United States, the British Isles, and Europe are today trying 
out new ways based upon our new knowledge of science and 
our recently increased knowledge of children because they are 
free to experiment. The schools of the state are not so free. 
“When we compel the attendance at school of the laborer’s son, 
and when by taxation we take from the widow’s income, then 
all phases of our school work are immediately brought under 
scrutiny, and very properly so. The taxpaying public has a 
right to demand that the subject-matter selected for school 
work shall be sufficiently valuable to justify the parent’s ex- 
penditure of time; and that schoolroom methods shall be effective 
and economical.” This means that public schools generally 
cannot experiment to discover better ways. They must use 
proved and approved methods. So for the most part the pri- 
vate school must blaze the trail for schools generally. Never- 
theless more public schools in the United States than we in 
Boston and New England are aware have broken away from 
old traditions and have revitalized school work to combine 
living with learning. 

Underlying general principles upon which the new or ex- 
perimental schools proceed today are these: That childhood 
and youth are entitled to their own privileges and joys, and 
should not be unduly sacrificed to a future period of life. 
That small children must be taught exercise of the will through 
the imagination—in addition to exercise of the body and mind. 
That education must be planned to develop intelligence, self- 
control, and independence of action, or in other words, that 
education is designed to show young people how to learn since 
learning goes on through life. 

In the practical working out of these theories small children 
are surrounded by the environment which insures natural bodily 
movement and happiness, with materials of advancing degrees 
of difficulty for self-education. Throughout elementary school 
years emphasis is put upon the environment which suggests, 


1« The Motivation of School Work,’’ by H. B. Wilson and G. M. Wilson. 


Experimental Schools in England 5 


and materials which make possible self-education. During this 
period boys and girls turn to books for reference work, and 
to supplement, enlarge, and broaden first-hand experience. They 
work individually or in groups, each at his own pace, helping 
one another, and turning to the teacher as friend and adviser. 
The set-recitation period as the order of the day no longer 
exists. 

Subjects are no longer studied separately. The three R’s 
are not neglected, but have their important natural place in 
connection with first-hand experiences called “project-work” and 
other studies. Natural science, geography, and history are re- 
lated in most of the new schools today. Art work draws upon 
these studies for much of its inspiration. Music has its im- 
portant and natural place. Workshops of various kinds exist 
right up to college and make possible the continuance of in- 
dividual experiment or the development of individual skill in 
mechanical, scientific, handcraft or art ways. 

Joy in work cannot fail to impress the visitor in the new 
school. Creative effort is at once its aim, its opportunity, and 
its stimulus. BEM. 


[OOUDS payyTy Fury ayy, . Cl pasy ‘pacisyor A vpNsIE) 


Lo INE WwW PE OU CATION 


By BEATRICE ENSOR 
(Chairman of The New Education Fellowship, Editor of ‘' The New Era”) 


aim of Education was to impart as much informa- 
tion to the child as it was capable of assimilating. 

aS Today it is recognized by advanced educationists 
that the primary aim of Education is to release the creative 
powers of the child. 

The New Psychology has illumined the path of the educator 
so that today we realize the importance of the study of the 
individual child, of providing the right atmosphere in the schools, 
where, in freedom and joyousness, the child can create spon- 
taneously from within. 

This new ideal necessitates a new type of school from which 
fear has been eradicated and in which punishment and artificial 
stimuli such as marks and’prizes are unknown. Rigid time- 
tables and curricula are being abandoned. In these new schools 
the Arts and Crafts play an important role; they are an integral 
part of the curricula instead of appearing as handwork for the 
juniors and extra subjects for the few non-examination pupils, . 
as is the case in the old type of school. 

The Arts and Crafts have taken their place as important 
channels of self-expression; they are seen to be fundamental 
to the natural development of mind and emotion. Therefore, 
in the New Schools will be found opportunities for woodwork, 
pottery, bookbinding, gardening, painting, leatherwork, jewelry 
and metal work, weaving and the domestic arts. From these 
the children are free to choose. 

It is, of course, well known that the brain is developed 
largely through the hand, and that by finding himself efficient 
in a practical task the child gains confidence in himself and is 
more able to tackle mental tasks. Handwork has been found 
invaluable in helping the backward child. Many emotional dis- 
turbances can be straightened out through a course of craft 
work. Imagination, initiative, accuracy, and many other im- 
portant qualities, are developed through crafts. 

7 


8 Experimental Schools in England 


The teacher with a knowledge of psychology is often able 
to detect in a child’s handwork some of the hidden difficulties 
in the sub-conscious which may lie behind abnormalities in 
conduct.' 

It is becoming more and more realized that one of the great 
faults of our industrial system is the lack of opportunity for 
any creative expression in the work of millions of men and 
women. Since it is unthinkable that it is possible to go back 
to a state of civilization in which all work is handwork, the 
only remedy is to develop our machinery still further, to in- 
crease the output and decrease the number of hours of work, 
and give to all those engaged in mechanical tasks more leisure 
in which to live the lives of real men and women and realize 
themselves in true recreation. It is in the schools that prepara- 
tion for this leisure should be made and an appreciation of the 
beauty and creativeness of handwork aroused. 

The remarkable results obtained from pupils by teachers 
who have been sufficiently courageous and free to express 
themselves, have amply demonstrated that there has been an 
enormous amount of creative power inhibited by wrong 
methods of instruction in schools, for practically every child 
has creative ability in some direction. It is the chief function 
of the New Education Movement to search for methods of 
releasing this energy and to encourage the new type of school, 
in which every child is studied and helped to develop along 
the lines of his own individual temperament. 


‘It has been found that in many cases of nervous, overstrung, sensitive children handwork of a 
certain rhythmic kind, such as weaving, has been found extremely beneficial. 


Experimental Schools in » England ae 9 


List of Exhibits 


ST. CHRISTOPHER SCHOOL, Letchworth, Hertfordshire. 
H. Lyn Harris, Principal. 
(Day School with School House attached for boarders.) 


Dalton Plan, Montessori Method, Self-Government, Handicrafts, Dra- 
matic Work, Open-Air Classes. Special attention paid to the develop- 
ment of the character and individuality of the pupils. Co-education, 
Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Vegetarian diet. 


Exhibit:—Art Work, including carpentry, metal work, woodcarving, 
drawing, and design. 


The Art work of St. Christopher is run on optional lines, each child 
being at liberty to choose any form of Art which appeals to him. For 
instance, leatherwork, pewter repoussé, painting of wooden boxes, bowls, 
etc., weaving and woodwork are done. Imaginary illustration and ab- 
stract pictures play an important part. These are especially encouraged 
as a means of developing the child’s individuality, its creative senses 
and visionary powers. The handwork assists much more in the develop- 
ment of accuracy and concentrative care. The older children work side 
by side with the younger, both gaining much from each other’s various 
expressions and spirit of attack. In close connection with the Art work 
is the Theater, and often the children assist with the painting of scenery 
and the making of costumes. H. Lyn Harris. 


KING ALFRED SCHOOL, Manor Wood, North End Road, London 
N. W., 11 


JosepH H. WicxstTeEeEp, Director. 
(Day School.) 


Dalton Plan, Self-Government, Domestic Science, Handicrafts, Special 
Montessori Section, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Co-education. 


Exhibit:—Literature about the school. Photographs. Copies of The 
Alfredian, the school magazine. Drawings. Six clay models. 


The garden-lover selects his plants from afar to suit his mind. The 
cultivator of an Oxford lawn eliminates variety and aims at the beauty 
of breadth and uniformity. But the English woodlands have no selec- 
tion but Nature’s, and their breadth is only seen from the distant hills. 
The King Alfred School, founded by men and women who believed 
thirty years ago that the best servants of the Future would be boys and 
girls brought up on freedom, like the woods, to grow in the natural 
rain and sunshine of life, differing in strength and stature and beauty, 
but nourished by the same earth, conceives the teacher as woodsman 
rather than gardener. For us teaching, therefore, is something more 
than an art, more than a science—it is life itself—for which there are 
no final rules; each must make the venture anew of courageous act and 
thought, of tireless pressure forward, always cherishing a resolute hope 
of high success. 

The few samples of such work as could be sent across the Atlantic 
can show little enough either of our aims or our accomplishments, but 
they may serve to suggest the atmosphere of independence and oppor- 
tunity in which children and elders work in common. 


JosepH WicKksTEED, Headmaster. 


“10 ok Experimental Schools is England 


THE HALL SCHOOL, Weybridge, Surrey. 


Miss E. M. Gitpin, Director. 
(Day School.) 


Group work. Modified Self-Government, Special attention to handi- 
crafts, including Lithography, and to Dramatic work, which is used in 
connection with history, literature, and handicrafts. 


Exhibit:—“The Book of Don Quixote.” Seven scenes from the His- 
tory of Don Quixote, arranged by the children of the Hall School, 
from the Shelton translation, and produced by them in 1922. The book 
contains the verbatim text of the performance. All the illustrations 
have been designed and drawn on the stones by the children, and some 
twenty-five of each illustration have been actually printed by them on 
the school lithograph press. The remainder—the greater part—have 
been worked off by a firm of lithograph printers. 


Woodcut and lithograph illustrations for Nativity Play based on old 
French Noéls. Illustrations for “The Earl of Mar’s Daughter,” a 
Scotch ballad produced by the Hall School. The Nativity Play, for 
which some of the original illustrations are shown, was published by 
Constable, London. 


History work centers each year about a different subject, and the whole 
school works upon it. One year it is medieval history, art, legend, 
and life, with a Nativity Play in French as the pivot. Another year 
it is the making of the book “Don Quixote”; and still another year it 
is a trip to Oxford and a study of history through the study of Oxford 
architecture. The spirit of work and the love of things for them- 
selves which pervades the school is inspired by Miss Gilpin’s own in- 
terest in art, literature, and history, in which she is continuously a 


scholar. B. EM 


THE CALDECOTT COMMUNITY, Goff’s Oak, near Cheshunt, 
Hertfordshire. 


Miss P. E. Potrer and Miss L. M. RENpeEt, Directors. 
Boarding School for the workingman’s child. 
Exhibit:—Literature about the school, with photographs. 


It is the object of the Caldecott Community to give, so far as is pos- 
sible, as fair a start ‘in life to the children of poor parents as is given 
to the children of the rich. It offers the poor child a field in exchange 
for a street, and a garden in exchange for a gutter. The school has 
its own cows, which the children learn to tend and to milk, and its own 
ducks and hens, in the excellent spectacle of whose lives they find a 
continual source of interest and pleasure. I see that the founders of 
the school are now asking for a gift of two young pigs, and I hope 
they will get them, for young pigs are among the delightful humors 
of creation. The school has also the advantage of standing in large 
grounds of its own, with bird-haunted trees and an orchard and a 
garden, and lawns for games. It may well be that the creation of 
such a school marks the beginning of a new era in popular education. 
Its success should give it a thousand stccessors, and should help to 
bring it home to the mass of men and women that one of the objects 
of education ought to be to turn every town child into a country child, 


1 Written by the Editor from a visiting friend’s note book. 


The Garden School 


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Experimental Schools in England 13 


so that it may begin the battle of life without the drawback either of 
a starved frame or of a starved imagination... . 


The children at Caldecott House are encouraged to be happy, but they 
are encouraged to find happiness in working with their hands and their 
brains. Those who have visited the school have seen the charming 
work executed by the children on the handloom, in basketwork, in 
painting glass, and in other handicrafts. Education through books 
goes hand in hand with education in character, and discipline is learned 
through self-government. 


Rosert Lynp, in Preface to Eleventh Annual 
Report, 1923-24, The Caldecott Community. 


THE GARDEN SCHOOL, Ballinger Grange, Great Missenden, 
Buckinghamshire. 


Mrs. C. H. Nicnoris, Miss J. MANvitte, Directors. 
(Day School and Boarding.) 


Individual work, Montessori Method, Self-Government. Specializes in 
creative occupations: Drama, Music, Crafts, House decoration, ete. 
Affiliated to the Kibbo Kift Kindred (branch of Camp-Fire Girls). 
Pupils come out during summer if they wish. Village work: School 
runs a village orchestra and a troupe of players drawn from villagers 
and the school pupils. 


Exhibit:—Photographs of School. Copies of Junior and Senior Maga- 
zines. Illustrations for Lecture on Costume. Posters for Village Plays. 
Album of Costume and Programme Drawings. Six drawing albums 
showing the chronological work of individual children. The Garden 
School Book of Verse. Music Album and book of original music com- 
positions. Sheets describing science teaching. Kibbo Kift Log Book, 
Costume, Headdress, Declaration and Two Totems by “The Heron 
Tribe.” Arts and Crafts Exhibit. 


The albums of drawings illustrating the development of individual 
children over a period of years are intended to form the basis of a 
psychological study. The photographs of various crafts (seven of 
clay-modelling, one of spinning, one of weaving, etc.) should be exam- 
ined in connection with the examples of crafts sent. Music is taught 
at the Garden School by Miss Louisa White, originator of “The Letter- 
less Method of Music Teaching” and composer of pianoforte-music 
and songs. The album illustrating “The Letterless Method” is sup- 
plemented by a little book of “Three Pianoforte Lyrics” by a girl of 
seventeen who has learned on this method since the age of six. 


The school bulletin is issued once a term, so that the three numbers 
bound up in one cover represent school record for one year. The 
posters announcing village plays represent one phase of the work done 
by the school for the village. One of several village activities is to 
run a dramatic troupe of about thirty v@llage children and to help them 
produce a play once a year. The illustrations for a lecture on ‘“Cos- 
tume” represent only the second half of the subject, as treated by two 
girls in a partnership lecture. Unfortunately the other girl, who took 
the earlier periods of the story of British Costume, has not kept her 
illustrations. 
L. WintFrrep NICHOLLS. 


(The Garden School Exhibit is shown as a whole in The New Room.) 


14 Experimental Schools in England 


KING’S LANGLEY PRIORY, Hertfordshire. 
Miss M. Cross, Director. 
(Boarding School.) 


King’s Langley Priory is a lovely old building, a part of a large Do- 
minican Priory of the fourteenth century. It had been used for 
hundreds of years as farmhouse and stables. The life of the school 
centers about the conduct of the house and farm, in which all children 
share. They do all housecleaning and sweeping, preparation of meals; 
care of walks, grass, gardens; raising of vegetables; care of two 
ponies, eighteen goats, and chickens. Certain tasks last a long term 
if difficult. Others shift frequently. The vegetarian diet is supplied 
by the school’s own planting, so that it is almost entirely self-supporting 
so far as food is concerned. 
B; EM? 


There is classroom work in most subjects—French and German; 
History; English; Mathematics; Science. The Science work has fol- 
lowed unusual lines, as described below, and as the result of the 
teaching of Professor Patrick Geddes. Just as house, grounds, and 
district have been the basis of science study, so the approach to his- 
tory has been through a study of the Priory and the development of 
life from that time. 


Exhibit:—Science work. Regional Survey. A small selection of mate- 
rial from a large amount collected by the children from the year 1915 
to the present time. The work is mounted as shown on ordinary sheets 
of brown paper and kept in portfolios, labeled, Botany, Meteorology, 
History, Church, Farms, etc., etc.—the whole forming a study of King’s 
Langley and its environments, «e., its physical features (Place); its 
industries and occupations (Work); and its story in time, and the 
nature of its inhabitants, past and present (People). The necessity of 
taking, for the exhibit, typical sheets from the portfolios makes it 
difficult to preserve anything of this. The sheets are selected to illus- 
trate some point of interest, and not for quality of work. 


The approach to a study of the Tegion and of regional and general 
geography for the small children is illustrated by three or four rough 
plans which they have made after and during many walks. When the 
whole village has been thus mapped, roughly to scale, they are intro- 
duced to large scale ordnance maps, and from the twenty-five inch to 
mile, pass to the six inch, one inch, and one-half inch maps of the 
locality. These lead to regional geography and to a study of the 
British Isles—and thence where you will. 


The work shown from the upper school is sometimes the result of 
individual research, sometimes the pooled efforts of a whole class, as 
will be readily seen. 


It is difficult to show a connected sequence of work, either as to sub- 
ject or in time: for example, no plant study is sent, and little geology, 
but it does not mean that none has been done. Some studies of ani- 
mals are included—scrappy and unfinished, but illustrative of the method 
of recorded observation by map, plan, and drawing, as well as writing. 


CoMMUNICATIONS 


Road, Canal, and Rail have all been tackled. The sheet of Railway 
study is included as a good example of getting the children to work 


1 Written by the Editor from the notes of a friend who visited the School. 


Experimental Schools in England 15 


out from the known and experience environment to the wider environ- 
ment, e.g., the local station to a railway map of the British Isles, 


THE VILLAGE 


The Church has been studied repeatedly, by classes and individuals. 
Here we send only a sheet showing a brass rubbing. From the church 
study children have tackled Heraldry, Costumes, Stained Glass, local 
names, etc., etc. 


INDUSTRIES 


The varied (and popular) studies of local industries are shown by 
a sheet of Public Houses and Stables, by some work in the Flour Mill, 
and some sheets of agricultural records. The farms have been tackled 
rather fully, so we include a fairly representative exhibit. The crops 
have been mapped thus, more or less fully, from 1916 to the present 
year. 


Priory 


There are a few sheets showing various aspects of the fourteenth 
century (Dominican) Priory buildings in which the school is housed, 
and which gives a good approach to various aspects of history. Pre- 
history is emphasized, especially among the little ones (and followed 
through in the upper school), and much practical work is done in con- 
nection with it; but their frail pots from clay dug up in our own gar- 
den and crude efforts at flint chipping and primitive weaving do not 
convey much when away from their environment and without personal 
demonstration, so we have not tried to represent this side of our work. 


OUTLYING VILLAGES 


We make frequent excursions to places of interest within reason- 
able reach and attempt to record the results graphically; so we include 
examples from the portfolios relating to the City of St. Albans, six 
miles to the east, and the village of Sarratt, about five miles west of us. 


As a fairly. complete example of work done in its survey time by 
one class recently, we enclose the whole portfolio relating to the local 
gravel works. Digging for gravel was begun in the Gade Valley, about 
a mile and a half from school in 1922, and its progress has been fol- 
lowed and recorded with much interest. ; 


A study of wireless brings the survey up to modern times and also 
serves to show how it can never be a “worked out” method. This map 
is already out of date and unfinished! 


A bird’s-eye view of her own district made by a pupil in her holidays 
is also included. 
Mase. M. BARKER. 


Editor’s Note :—Miss Barker’s science work has been directly influenced 
by the theories and teaching of Patrick Geddes. She is spending this 
year in further study with him in Montpellier, France. Since much 
of the present-day school work in science and geography, of Europe 
and America, is indirectly influenced by Patrick Geddes’ thinking and 
teaching, we have asked Miss Barker to write the article which follows 
about him, . 


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Pree Ber LL bis 
AND HIS INFLUENCE ON EDUCATION 


By MABEL M. BARKER 


T is difficult to give within the compass of a short 
Wes article any idea of the personality and work of 
f Us Professor Patrick Geddes; still more, that of huis 
ever-extending influence, even though the range is 
limited to some consideration of his connection with modern 
education. A sketch which treats of him and his work more 
generally has recently appeared from the pen of Lewis Mum- 
ford in the “Survey Graphic” for February 1925, as foreword 
to a series of articles by Geddes himself; but it is tempting 
to assume that all there touched upon would in point of fact 
come well within the scope of my title, since the whole wide 
range of his activities, as town-planner, botanist, sociologist, 
author, etc., etc., are now having and will have yet more influ- 
ence upon that most potent factor in the making of the future 
—FEducation. 

But to enable us to understand a little how it is that Geddes 
is so far-reaching a power in the shaping of the lives of others, 


let us glance very briefly at his own origin and education. Born 
near the little city of Perth on the Tay, where civic and rural 
tradition are happily balanced, where highland meets lowland, 
where the river becomes navigable, and the “Fair City” owes 
its title more to the beauty and variety of its setting than to 
architectural merits (though not without these), Patrick Geddes 
was from the first a keen nature-student. Whatever may have 
been the contributions to his education of the old Perth Acad- 
emy (beyond the geometry ever since in use), his real school 
was the region around, which he and his comrades explored 
as a whole, and with the radius of their discoveries increasing 
with their years and walking powers. Geology, botany, zoology, 
history, folklore—all were one to them; all absorbed by these 
keen adventurers on the crags of Kinnoul, the giens and for- 
ests of the Ochils, and the islands and waters of the finest 
river in the British Isles. At home, helped by the happiest 
and most sympathetic of conditions, his eager and normal mind 
devoured unchecked all the literature available. He became 
a keen gardener and something of a carpenter; and when his 
17 


18 a Experimental Schools in England 


activities as chemist spread from bedroom to kitchen, and be- 
came too much for the rest of the household, his father promptly 
built a small shed in the garden, thenceforth the laboratory 
and workshop, where his intensive self-education went on 
apace. | | 

These early years are the key to his many-sided after life, 
and such a full and free education is the heritage which he 
would recapture for the less fortunate youth of our time. | 

After a year in a bank—sufficient to strengthen his deter- 
mination not to pass his life “polishing a stool” on the one 
hand, and to give him a certain amount of .business education 
on the other—he, with his father’s consent and help, took up 
science as a life-work; and studied biology at various univer- 
sities, making a selection of them truly medizval in its com-— 
prehensiveness! Having studied chemistry at Dundee, he went 
to London, and became a student under Huxley, Burdon- 
Sanderson, and Schejer. From Paris, under Lacaze-Duthiers, 
he went to the zodlogical station at Roscoff, later to that at 
Naples, and returning to Scotland and Aberdeen, helped to 
found one at Stonehaven. He later went to Haeckel in Jena. 
Nowhere did he trouble to take any degree! 

His circle of study still widened, and he spent a winter 
with a brother in Mexico. But here his previous too close 
application to the microscope and reading resulted in a break- 
down of eyesight, with a severe threat even of blindness. This, 
however, became a determining crisis in his life, a time of 
fruitful opportunity. All the great wealth of impressions and 
facts collected in these intensive student years had time to 
germinate as it were, to become henceforth no mere accumula- 
tion of encyclopedic and static knowledge, but a kinetic and 
organized force for use in the world. Here, in ten weeks of 
darkness, he evolved the methods of synthetic thought which 
he has used ever since with tremendous effect, and which will 
be his greatest contribution to human progress. 

Returning to Scotland, he became assistant professor of 
botany and extra-mural lecturer in zoology in Edinburgh, 
which from that time onwards has been the center of his work 
and influence; and from then we may date his direct and in- 
creasing influence on education, both by his own teaching and 


Experimental Schools in England sores ei 


through his students and colleagues. Among the earliest of 
these were G. F. Scott-Elliott, J. Arthur Thomson, J. S. Hal- 
dane, W. S. Bruce, the Arctic explorer, and others. Among 
them also was Anna Morton, whom he married in 1886, and 
who from then till her death in Caicutta in 1917 was indeed 
his “life-companion,” and a more efficient and influential col- 
league than any other. But his student-life continued right 
through, with ever-increasing intensity and in widening orbits. 
There was never much money to spend on further travel, but 
the continent was first explored in vacations by means of wall- 
ing tours. He visited Athens and Constantinople and Germany ; 
and in later years, with his wife, Paris (repeatedly), Montpel- 
lier, Cyprus, America, and India. They carried their joint 
studies in experimental sociology to the extent of ten years’ 
housekeeping in an Edinburgh slum, where indeed their first 
child was born. He became Professor of Botany at Dundee 
(St. Andrew’s University), a chair which he filled for thirty 
years. After that he was for five years Professor of Sociology 
in Bombay. But to return to Edinburgh; in 1887 they organ- 
ized there the first Summer School in Europe. Now, Summer 
Schools are so numerous and so widespread, that some of us 
flee to the mountain tops to avoid them; but they have indeed 
become a potent influence in education. These initial summer 
meetings, of which the leading spirits were Scott-Elliott (botany), 
J. Arthur Thomson (zoology), and Patrick Geddes (social sci- 
ence), continued to be held in Edinburgh for many years, and 
were veritable seedbeds for new endeavour in all directions; and 
there are many who still look back to them as to the determin- 
ing influence of their lives. 

In 1892 they, and other initiatives of Geddes, acquired a 
more permanent home in the Outlook Tower, which Professor 
Zueblin has called “The World’s First Sociological Laboratory.” 
Thence, to give one concrete example of the results of the sum- 
mer meetings, came the introduction in 1900 of Nature Study 
into the regular teaching curriculum of the elementary schools 
of Great Britain; and the Tower and its workers have con- 
tinued to exert their influence towards its better treatment. 
The school gardens begun in Edinburgh spread to Dublin and 
further, and its nature study methods went to India with Sister 
Nevedita and to South Africa with Miss Mary Ritchie. 


20 Experimental Schools in England 


The influence of Geddes, his Outlook Tower and the vaca- 
tion meetings, has been even more marked in the domain of 
geography. He was helped at the Tower by Elisee, Elie and 
Paul Reclus, Edmond Demolins, A. J. Herbertson, Dr. Marcel 
Hardy, and others too numerous to mention; but all eventually 
carrying the good work further afield. The “Regional Survey 
of Edinburgh” took shape, and bore fruit, in direct effort for 
betterment in the city; and in the Cities and Town Planning 
Exhibition held in London in 1910, and thereafter in other 
places, including Dublin, Ghent, and various cities in India. 
Here, among others, Valentine Bell met with his inspiration; 
and undaunted—nay, stimulated—by the fact that his work 
lay in no rural village nor fair city, but in an elementary 
school in the worst slums of Lambeth, he proceeded to work 
out Geddes’ methods there, with results cheering in their direct 
effect, and even more so in their triumphant challenge to the 
whole of the pessimistic “well, it-can’t-be-done-here-anyway” 
school! He has since carried the Regionalists’ banner through 
the trenches in Flanders, to a continuation school in White- 
chapel, and now to another one in Battersea; and in his “spare 
time” (?) 1s waving it with unabated faith and vigor to a class 
in Wormwood Scrubs prison! 

In 1912-1913 another great educational endeavour took shape 
at the Tower under Geddes’ direction. The “Masques of 
Ancient and Modern Learning,’ performed in Edinburgh and 
in London, were splendid pageants, presenting in glowing color 
and movement the whole march of education through the 
ages. And civic masques and pageants in many places owed 
more to his initiative and suggestion than is generally known 
(e.g., those of Stafford and Bingley, inspired and _ carried 
through by his student, Mrs. Fraser Davies). 

Meanwhile other students had been trying the Survey 
Method in the Training College and Friends’ School in Saffron 
Walden; and waking to its tremendous possibilities, they re- 
vived the Tower Vacation Meetings in the Easter holidays of 
1914. From a gathering of some thirty teachers from all 
parts of the British Isles arose a small but active group, later 
named the “Regional Association” (now incorporated with 
Le Play House, London), and having for its object the en- 


Experimental Schools oa England a 


couragement and extension of Regional Survey methods, es- 
pecially in education. It would now be difficult to enumerate 
the schools carrying on such work; but one is at least safe in 
saying that many are not in touch with us and more do not 
know whence their inspiration came. That is as it should be, 
for the thought and methods of Geddes, while in part becom- 
ing the focus and direction of ideas already “in the air’ and 
growing in many kindred minds, have been broadcasted for 
years like waves upon the ether, and nothing can stop them 
now, nor need we fear but that they shall take effect. The 
last ten years have been spent chiefly in India and Palestine ; 
and have seen the planning of many cities and universities, 
notably that of Rabindranath Tagore and that of the Zionists 
at Jerusalem. 

But his educational method goes a step further than this. 
The boy in the Perth region sixty years ago was educated not 
merely by observing and exploring, but by actively helping his 
parents, and by lending a hand in the real work of the work 
in friendly workshops and gardens and laboratories then and 
thereafter, wherever he has gone. He is a biologist who has 
applied his biological concepts to the study of mankind, and 
who sees that the true parallel of a society in action is not the 
one sometimes drawn between an organism and its component 
cells, but between an organism functioning in its environment 
and a human group working out its history in its place; that 
human societies in fact, like functioning life in all forms, have 
evolved through work. If this be true, if indeed we “learn 
by living,’ if men’s “hands have made them wise,” is there 
not here an educational concept deeper than that of mere 
nature study and observation? It is not enough to survey one’s 
region; one must also experience it. This idea of bringing the 
primitive occupations of man into the service of education, an 
idea which we have not now space to develop further, will 
probably be the most far-reaching of Geddes’ many and potent 
influences on our time; and there is hope for civilization in- 
deed if he, and we his students, can bring home to our war- 
shattered world the understanding that we must stil learn by 
living, and that the making of the future is most literally in 
the hands of the children. 


PROGRESSIVE" EDUCATION TN 


GERTRUDE HARTMAN 
Editor of Progressive Education 


=¥4HE first quarter of the twentieth century has been 
productive in developing a new philosophy of 
education based upon scientific knowledge of child 
nature and needs. As a result, there is now a great 
wealth of new educational theory in existence; the problem at 
the present time is how to translate this theory into terms of 
actual school procedure. 

Recently the term “progressive education” has come into use 
to designate the work of schools which are definitely committed 
to the task of converting the new theory into practice. Since 
the early days of Professor Dewey’s experiment at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, the number of these schools has increased 
by leaps and bounds. It is perhaps natural that small, privately 
supported schools should in general have been more responsive 
in making these changes than large, cumbersome public school 
systems. Although the great majority of private schools are 
still of the traditional type, there are many scattered all over 
the country from Boston to Florida and from Alabama to 
California, blazing new trails in trying out new educational 
ideas: These schools represent a variety of conditions and 
methods. They range all the way from such large and na- 
tionally known schools as the Francis Parker School in Chicago 
and the Lincoln School in New York, to the tiny schools in 
small, obscure places unknown beyond their own local commu- 
nities. In their fundamental aims they are, however, in agree- 
ment in trying out new ways of adjusting the requirements 
of our complicated social situation to the needs of child life, 
which constitutes the essential problem of present-day educa- 
tion. There is no doubt that these private educational labora- 
tories are doing valuable research work, the results of which 
will have an increasingly important bearing upon the future 
of education. 

But however great advance progressive methods may make 
in private schools, it is not until they make a definite impres- 

22 


Experimental Schools in England ei en 


sion upon public schools that one can feel assured of their 
widespread and permanent influence upon American education. 
Too frequently the discouraging opinion is heard that while 
the new methods may be applicable to private schools, where 
only a few children are concerned, it is impossible to admin- 
ister them in the complex public school systems of our large 
cities. The older view of education saw its goal clearly and 
moved toward it in ordered fashion year by year, and it has 
moulded our whole educational machinery into conformity with 
its aims. The new philosophy is as yet without a technique 
that can adequately meet the needs of the public school with 
its great number of children to be educated. The problem 
central to the educational reconstruction going on at the pres- 
ent time is the search for this technique. Constructive educa- 
tors are everywhere at work in public school systems devising 
ways and means. May the day be not too far distant when 
the new and enriched educational opportunities now offered 
here and there to a few scattered groups of children will be 
available to all the children of the land. Such opportunities 
are the inalienable birthright of every living child. 

The education of the public in general is, however, vital 
to educational advance. The physical difficulties—the large 
number of children, lack of funds, and so on—are not the real 
barriers to progress, as is so often alleged. They are only 
the outward manifestations of an unawakened public opinion. 
When enough people understand and want the new type of 
education, ways and means of providing it will not be lacking. 

It was to assist in spreading knowledge of and interpreting 
to the public the newer developments in education that the 
Progressive Education Association was formed in 1919. By 
uniting in one membership not only professional workers, but 
the lay public as well, it aims to give support and solidarity 
and the strength of organization to what would otherwise be 
uncoordinated effort. Since the organization of the association 
much material in regard to progressive methods has been dis- 
tributed, a number of bulletins have been published, and five 
national conventions held, which have been most fruitful in 
arousing enthusiasm for and in disseminating information about 
recent progress in education. 


: 24 | Experimental Gebiels - England 


In April, 1924, the association began a new publication, Pro- 
gressive Education, a quarterly magazine, which should contain 
the concrete material and actual news of the progressive move- 
ment. There are in each issue news of new experiments and 
of outstanding educational events, a department of foreign notes, 
telling of significant developments in other parts of the world, 
and reviews of books and brief digests of magazine articles 
dealing with progressive phases of education. ‘So that the 
magazine thus forms a running commentary upon current edu- 
cational problems, bringing together, as it does, material from 
a wide range of sources, much of which has not up to this 
time been assembled in convenient form for reference. 

Through every means at its disposal the association en- 
deavors to report out the new and significant contributions of 
those who are working to free the schools from the shackles 
of old conventions and to push ahead the frontiers of educa- 
tion, for in the words of the recent program for Education 
Week, published by the United States Bureau of Education, 
those who have espoused this cause believe that “Progressive 
civilization depends upon progressive education.” 


Epitor’s Note: Membership in the Progressive Education 
Association is one way of lending support to the movement 
for better education of children generally. This membership 
is two dollars a year, and entitles the member to receive the 
Progressive Education Quarterly. Membership fees should be 
sent to Progressive Education Association, 110 Jackson Place, 
Washington, D. C. 


SOME OUTSTANDING EXPERIMENTAL 
SCHOOLS IN: ENGLAND * 


BEDALES Petersfield, Hampshire 
St. CHRISTOPHER Letchworth, Hertfordshire 
St. GEORGE’S SCHOOL Harpenden, Hertfordshire 
FRENSHAM HEIGHTS Near Farnham, Surrey 
ABBOTSHOLME Near Rocester, Derbyshire 
Duncan House 4 Rodney Place, Clifton, Bristol 
CLAYESMORE Northwood Park, Winchester 


KinG ALFRED SCHOOL 
Manor Wood, North End Rd., London, N. W. 11 
THe Hartt ScHOOL Weybridge, Surrey 
Kinc’s LANGLEY PRIoryY King’s Langley, Hertfordshire 
THE GARDEN SCHOOL 
Ballinger Grange, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire 


MALTMAN’S GREEN Gerrard’s Cross, Buckinghamshire 
THE VINEYARD Longbridge Lane, Northfield, Worcestershire 
BEMBRIDGE SCHOOL Bembridge, Isle of Wight 
PERSE SCHOOL Cambridge 


DOME ~ PROGRESSIVE]. SCHOOLS 
ING THE UNTDEED STATES 


ANTIOCH COLLEGE AND ANTIOCH SCHOOL 
Yellow Springs, Ohio 


BEAVER CountTRY Day SCHOOL Brookline, Massachusetts 
BEAVER~ SCHOOL Boston, Massachusetts 
Brookwoop WoRKERS’ COLLEGE Katonah, New York 
CARSON COLLEGE Flourtown, Pennsylvania 
CHAzY SCHOOL Chazy, New York 


CHEVY CHASE Country Day ScHoot Chevy Chase, Maryland 
CHILDREN’S UNIversITy ScHoot New York City, New York 


City AND CouNTRY SCHOOL New York City, New York 

EDGEWOOD SCHOOL Greenwich, Connecticut 

ETHICAL CULTURE SCHOOL New York City, New York 

FAIRHOPE SUMMER SCHOOL Greenwich, Connecticut 
1 There are many more schools in England of which we in the United States should know. 


25 


26 Experimental Schools in England 


FAIRHOPE ORGANIC SCHOOL Fairhope, Alabama 


FRANCIS Scott KEy SCHOOL Baltimore, Maryland 
Francis W. PARKER SCHOOL Chicago, Illinois 
GARY SCHOOLS Gary, Indiana 
Junior ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Downers Grove, Illinois 
KEYSTONE SCHOOL Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 


LINcoLN SCHOOL OF TEACHERS COLLEGE 
New York City, New York 
THE LirrtE Rep ScHoot House New York City, New York 


Loomis INSTITUTE Windsor, Connecticut 
MANUMIT SCHOOL Pawling, New York | 
MERRILL-PALMER SCHOOL Detroit, Michigan 
THE MopERN SCHOOL Stelton, New Jersey 
MontTcLatir OrGANIC ScHoot Upper Montclair, New Jersey 
MoraAINE PARK SCHOOL Dayton, Ohio 
Oak LANE Country Day ScHoot Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
OOTAT® VALLEY >CHOOL Ojai, California 
Ortp ORCHARD SCHOOL Leonia, New Jersey 
THE Park SCHOOL Baltimore, Maryland 
THE PARK SCHOOL Buffalo, New York 
Tak PARK SCHOOL Cleveland, Ohio 
PETERBOROUGH SCHOOL Peterborough, New Hampshire 
PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Pua@se ANNA THORNE SCHOOL Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 
PorTER RURAL SCHOOL Kirksville, Missouri 
RAYMOND RiorDAN ScHooL Highland, Ulster Co., New York 
SCARBOROUGH SCHOOL Scarborough-on-Hudson, New York 
ScHooL OF NATURAL DEVELOPMENT New York City, New York 
SHaApy Hitt ScHOOL Cambridge, Massachusetts 
SILVER Bay SCHOOL Silver Bay, New York 
SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS Springfield, Massachusetts 
SuNSET H1LL SCHOOL Kansas City, Missouri 
THE UNIVERSITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Columbia, Missouri 
TEACHERS COLLEGE EXPERIMENT FOR GIFTED CHILDREN 
UnouowaA SCHOOL Startfield, Connecticut 
WALDEN SCHOOL New York City, New York 
WINNETKA SCHOOLS Winnetka, Illinois 


THE WASHINGTON SCHOOL New York City, New York 


A FEW BOOKS ON EDUCATION 


(These books will be found in The New ‘Room of the “Bookshop) 


Davidson 
Dewey 


Henderson 


Adams 


De Lima 
Smith 


Moore 


Pickett-Boren 


Coe 
Stevenson 


Yeomans 


Badley 
Mackinder 


Wells 
Woods 
Young 


Education as World Building (1925) 
School and Society (rev. ed. 1924) 
What is it to be Educated? (1914) 


Modern Developments in Educational 
Practice (1925) 


Our Enemy the Child (1925) 
Education Moves Ahead (1924) 


The Primary School (1925) 
Early Childhood Education (1925) 


ae" 2m982 200 0 0 2 sre est 


Law and Freedom in the School (1924) 
The Project Method of Teaching (1924) 
Shackled Youth (1921) 


EN GUISH SCHOOLS 


Bedales, a Pioneer School 
Individual Work in Infants’ Schools 
Sanderson of Oundle 

The Story of a Great School Master 
Experimental Schools in England 


New Era in Education 


Pw 


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